The Deck of Dragons are, in a manner of speaking, this world's version of tarot cards - they are used in fortune-telling, divination etc. Each card refers to an Ascendant or God, and is aspected in some way (Life, Death, Dark, Shadow, etc). The cards change depending on who is in ascension, events across the world and so on. A reading is carried out for a number of reasons, by a number of people - those with the real talent to read the cards are few and far between, usually sorcerers or priests. A wealthy merchant might do it to see how the impending siege will affect his trade, or a traveller might want an intimation of what events he may encounter in his journey.